Editorial: Now we're rid of an evil man

He preys on the innocent and the vulnerable, but thankfully he won't be able to harm anyone else.

The 41-year-old Hastings man was sentenced at High Court in Napier yesterday to a minimum term of imprisonment of 20 years for a number of child sex offences.

Ellmers admitted the charges in February after being caught as part of an international paedophile ring that was smashed by police last year.

Police say this is one of the worst cases they have ever seen.

The officer in charge of the case, Detective Senior Sergeant Dave Greig of the Eastern Child Protection Team, said Ellmers was a very cunning and manipulative paedophile who had no regard for his victims or their families.

That is what makes this case so shocking - the way this sick man planned and plotted ways to steal children from their parents so that he could abuse them and then trade images of his crimes around the world with equally sick individuals.

This man knew no limits and he was even able to find a father willing to rent out his 13-month-old son for Ellmers' perverse use for $500.

That is unbelievable to most of us, but thank goodness the father was also arrested.